Ammunition



Dec. 11, 1931. w, H. WOODFORD 1,834,364

AMMUNITION Filed April 25, 1950 IN V EN TOR.

Watson hiwoodfbr'd Patented ll, llddl near srrs arena as WATSON E. WOODFORD, F BRDGEPORT, ASSIGNOR, BY" MESNE ASSIGN- MEETS, TO AMERICAN HAIR d FELT COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A COREQBA- men or DELAWARE Application a April as,

The present invention relates to shot shell cartridges and more particularly to wads for these cartridges. Such wads have commonly been made from such substances as pressed a paper, cork, and various forms of felts. The

present invention contemplates the improvement of these wads generally, regardless of the material of which the wads are composed,

and further the invention contemplates particular improvements in wads of the hair felt type, such for example as are disclosed in the patent to Burghardt, No. 1,724,338, for ammunition, dated August 13, 1929.

Wads formed from a felt of short hair possess numerous advantages over other forms of wads, as set forth in the abovementioned patent. I Such wads, however, are necessarily formed at their front and rear faces with short hair fibres carried by the wad body, and these fibres, some of which.

present projecting ends, are undesirably capable of catching and tangling with similar fibres at the surfaces of other wads when brought in contact therewith. This is objectionable, especially where these wads are loaded into cartridges by machines in which the wads are stacked face to face in vertical columns, and are fed one by one from the bottom of the column to the loading mechanism. Tnterengagement of hair on faces of adjacent wads renders it dificult to separate wads in the loading machine, as when it is attempted to slide the lowermost wad out from beneath the wad column. Heretofore, it has been customary to provide a layer of paper of each face of the wad to reduce friction between adjacent wads in the loading machine, and also for certain other reasons, such as to prevent the undesirable tendency of moisture which is sometimes carried by the wad to creep into the powder charge of the wad. Further, itis the usual practice to provide the side surfaces of wads with grease for purposes of lubrication and the layers of.

paper provided on the wad faces have served additionally to retard the tendency of the grease to creep from the wad to the powder charge and other constituents of the car triclge. The use of paper, however, is open to several objections, among which are the MUNITIQBT 1939. Serial No. 446,507;

vantages above mentioned. llt is an object to providea wad coated with a material which is fireproof, and which in many respects is superior to wad coatings used heretofore.

llt is a further object to provide a coating for the faces of shot shell wads which does not absorb grease or moisture carried by the wad and which, therefore, efliciently prevents undesirable creeping of such grease and moisture to other parts of the cartridge.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a coating especially suitable for shot shell wads of the hair felt type, which coating serves to embed any hair ends which might otherwise project from the face of the wad, and to present a smooth surface which lessens friction at the faces of the wad, thus facilitating handling and feeding of these wads in a loading machine. It is a further object to provide a wad coating which is somewhat flexible and pliable and therefore can yield to prevent cracking orrupture of the coating on deformation of the wad. It is a still further object to provide a wad coating which will prevent undesirable embedding of shot in the wad, and will therefore tend to produce better shot patterns.

These and further objects are to be ohtained from the use of wads coated according to the present invention, as will be apparent from the following specification of which the accompanying drawings form a part.

in the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a shot shell wad showing one face thereof coated according to e present invention.

T M a :1 a

re 2 18 a side view of one type or hair relt ad... coated according to the present inventioh.

FLEIG o is a side view of a reinforced air 'ic t wad coated according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a view in elevation of a shot shell cartridge containing wads coated according to the present invention, a portion of the wall of the cartridge body being removed to show the interior of the cartridge.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention shot shell wads are provided with a coating containing sodium silicate. A suitable filler is preferably added, of a material which is not gritty, and which possesses the characteristic of being slippery to touch, to serve as a lubricant. Soapstone has been found to be quite suitable for the filler, although other substances such as talc or graphite may be used, if desired. The coating material may be made by mixing about 30% filler material with about sodium silicate; although, if desired, part of the sodium silicate may be replaced by water. A formula which has given good results is as follows Per cent Soapstone 30 Water 20 Sodium silicate 50 These percentages are purely illustrative, and it will be understood that the quantities of each of these ingredients may be altered considerably from those stated. The coating material may be applied to the wads by any suitable process, such as by spraying, rolling or even dipping the wad material in a shallow bath of the coating solution, either before or after cutting out the wads. Because of the simpler operations involved, it is preferred to apply the coating to the sheets of wad material before cutting. After drying, the coating presents a smooth surface on the wad face, which is impervious to grease and moisture, and when applied to the faces of a hair felt wad material the coating is found to lay any projecting hair ends flat on the face of the wad, these hairs being em-. bedded in the coating. The coating material of the present invention furthermore is fireproof and minimizes possible danger of ignition of the wad material by flame from powder combustion.

Referring now to the drawings, in Figure 2 is shown a wad comprising a felt 10 of short hair fibres reinforced by fabric center 11. The wad is coated on its upper and lower surfaces 12 and 13, respectively, with a coating material as above described. The wad material preferably comprises a short hair felt, reinforced as shown in Figure 2, or unreinforced as shown at 14 in Figure 3. The wad itself, however, may be of any other suitable material, if desired. Where a hair felt wadis used, some of the hairs at the wad face will become embedded in the coating, thus providing a bond between the coating and the wad, and at the same time laying all hairs fiat on the wad face.

Wads for shot shell cartridges are preferably formed slightly larger in diameter than the interior of the cartridge bodies, and in loading, the wads are inserted slightly cuppped downwardly, as shown at 16 in Figure 4. A wad so cupped tends to flatten itself and to ress against the wall of the cartridge body. en the cartridge is fired in a gun the wad flattens to increase its diameter and engage the wall of the gun bore, therebyv forming a gas check. This flexing of the Wad is desirably augmented where a hair felt wad, such as hereinbefore described, is used, due to the lateral expansibility of this type Wad under axial compression due to gas pres- 7 sure. The wad coating of the present inven- 7,

= though the wad coating material of the presexit-invention apparently contains no ingredient which might detrimentally affect the powder, and wads made from hair felt as above described are found to possess sufficient rigidity and'strength to serve as over powder wads. The over powder wad 17 may, therefore, be replaced, if desired, by a hair felt wad as in Figure 2 or Figure 3 coated according to the present invention.

It has been proposed heretofore to provide a coatin of parafiin .on the faces of shot shell wag material to lubricate the cutting dies and to resist the creeping of moisture from the wad into the powder charge of the cartridge. Paraffin, however, is open to the objection that it is easily' softened by a comparatively low heat, which may come from the friction of cutting or of machine feeding, whereupon the paraffin will flow to the interior of the wad and thus lose its identity and function as a coatin Also, parafiin when cold is easily cracked and broken into flakes and can withstand only a very slight amount of the flexure that a wad is usuall subjected to durin the operations of 10a ing into a shot shel The wad coating of the present invention is found to be free from these and other objectionable characteristics of paraffin, and to be superior in many respects to wad coatings of paraffin and other materials used heretofore. a

What I claim is:

1. A shot shell wad having one of its faces provided with a coating containing sodium silicate and soapstone.

2. A shot shell wad having one of its faces provided with a coating containing sodium silicate.

3. A shot shell Wad having one of its faces provided with a coating containing sodium silicate and a filler.

4. A shot shell wad having its faces provided with a coating contain ng sodium si1i cate and soapstone.

5. A shot shell wad com rising a felt of 5 short hair having oneof its aces coated with a hair embedding material containing sodium silicate. I

6. A shot shell wad comprising a felt of short hair having one of its faces coated with 10 a hair embedding material containing sodium silicate and soapstone.

7. A shot shell wad com rising a felt of short hair having one of its aces coated with a hair embedding material containing sodium 15 silicate and a filler.

8. A shot shell wad comprising a felt of short hair having a face coated with a fireproof material.

9. A shot shell wad comprising a felt of 20 short hair having a face coated with a fireproof hair embeddin material.

WATSO H. WOODFORD. 

